WaPo Writer Proves Own Thesis With Inane Op-Ed

Huffington Post   |  Rachel Sklar   |   March 3, 2008 10:16 AM



If Charlotte Allen is trying to prove that women are stupid, then we should all consider her Exhibit #1.

I'm not going to waste my time parsing every single stupid statement in this piece — that's reserved for things that matter — but she does get at something that I've been wondering about recently: Why are people fainting at Obama rallies? It's pretty well established by now that he's an amazing speaker, that he's leading an incredible movement, that he's filling stadiums like never before seen in the political context — so are these people fainting from excitement and love and hope? Or are they maybe fainting because in order to be up front at an Obama event you have to line up really early and often the events run late and then it's a slow and laborious process to get the whole crowd filtered by the Secret Service and then there's usually a warm-up speaker or two until the candidate takes the stage? That makes me woozy just thinking about it. But since objective, critical assessment seems so far beyond Allen's puny intellectual capacities I won't judge her too harshly for leaving it out in this case.

Leaving aside the unsupported perpetuation of stereotypes, sweeping statements with no basis in fact and utter failure to be witty or clever, I have to take issue with the impugning of a true virtuoso of song: Céline Dion. Ahem. I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the womenfolk getting weepy when Rose and Jack had their watery farewell! Four Grammys (one was "Record of the Year") and millions of wedding songs can't be wrong (and if they are, I don't want to be right). Plus, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. They don't do that for just anyone, y'know. Too bad Allen didn't bother to research that or anything else in her piece — gee, I wonder if it's because she's not getting enough sex? 'Cause women totally get bitchy and cranky when that happens. Maybe if someone held her like this, and touched her like that she'd see things differently!

(Sorry if that last bit didn't make sense, but in addition to wanting to drop a Celine reference I thought I should just round out the slate of female stereotypes we're dealing with. I'd count 'em up, but I'm terrible at math!)

For smarter responses to this article — by boys! — Matt Yglesias, Jason Linkins, Jay Rosen, Glenn Reynolds, Shaun Mullen, Jay Newton-Small*, Steve Benen and PhD candidate Jake Young. Here are some other responses, but take them with a grain of salt because they were written by silly Botox-injecting, Obama-swooning, "Grey's Anatomy"-watching, "The Friday Night Knitting Club"-reading, eat-pray-loving women: Jane Hamsher, Amanda Marcotte, Jessica Valenti, Michelle Malkin, Jill Filipovic and Susan Reisman and the piece-de-resistance Jezebel girls, Moe Tkacik and Megan Carpentier, who break it all down real simple like.

And now I will leave you with this Celine Dion video, while I go shoe shopping with my twelve cats!

UPDATE: According to WaPo "Outlook" section editor John Pomfret told the Politico's Michael Calderone that Allen's piece was "meant to be tongue-in-cheek." See above re: failure to be witty or clever. C'mon, Pomfret, even a bunch of silly girls aren't going to believe that.




Some More Recommended Celine Songs:
It's All Coming Back To Me Now (By Jim Shaiman, so if you like Meatloaf, you'll like this.)
That's The Way It Is
Love Can Move Mountains
All By Myself (Buck up, lil' Celine, you've still got Vegas to look forward to!)
Because You Loved Me (Aw, remember when they hugged in the ocean???)
A New Day Has Come
To Love You More

Also, proof that women really ARE good drivers:
I Drove All Night

And, um, this has got to prove something:
I'm Your Angel (Duet with R. Kelly)

And finally — It All Comes Back To Hillary:
"You & I" - Official Hillary Clinton Campaign Song & Video

*Oh, come on, like Allen knows that's a woman. Shh!



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our worst and noblest qualities are neither masculine or feminine.they are simply human and when you transpose characteristics from one gender to the other they automatically appear different.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:43 AM on 03/06/2008

Clinton supporters chanting,
"Yes she will"
"Yes she will"
"Yes she will"


That makes me woozy just thinking about it.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:05 AM on 03/05/2008

Here's your exhibit A:

Norah O'Donnell: "What has Hillary Clinton ever done that qualifies her to pick up that phone?"
Rachel Skylar: "Umm...Hilary (Rosen) can answer that one."
Hilary Rosen: "Well, no one can argue that Hillary hasn't been around more conflict."

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:00 AM on 03/05/2008

This is hard to believe, unless you are being tongue-in-cheek, as the WaPo article obviously was. A fierce defence of "The Titanic" scarcely proves your point. When I took my wife to see that movie, doing my duty as a loving husband so I thought, I had to keep nudging her awake. Tagline: "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets". Plot Keywords: "Tearjerker / Soul Mates / Portrait Sitting / Suicide Attempt " Yuck. In the end, Rose demonstrates her gratitude to the salvage people who gave her the opportunity to give her life closure by throwing away the priceless irreplaceable object of their quest. A classic guy's WTF moment - but women everywhere (recognize anyone?) kept going back to see the movie over and over and over and... And by the way Celine Dion, who has a marvelous voice, will sing anything shoved under her nose as long as it has no backbeat or energy to it. Celine can sing like nuts, but that clip is a world-class yawner. So... maybe Charlotte Allen's had a little exasperation to express?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:30 PM on 03/04/2008

I'm a man, so all you girls listen up!(Those repulsed by that statement, please read on, for the rest, there is no need!) I've never heard of Allen before, and now I know why. She needs a little self-image therapy. Are there really people in the 21st century who beleive this way?(Outside the "Lord says I should be subserviant" crowd.) I can't even come up with an argument that doesn't seem so basic as to be wasted on the "reading" crowd! I'll just register my amazment and hope to come up with a product women like her can use. Oh, and thanks to the women who aren't like her, because I like to talk sometimes after sex!

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:08 PM on 03/04/2008

Agreed about the self image thingie. Her comments remind me of how I thought when I was 18ish and insecure. How old is she anyways? One thing I know for sure (oops, there's an Oprah reference) is that in the 25 years since I was 18, I have learned men and women are just different. Both sexes bring their own qualities into the mix and we shouldn't have it any other way. Stop wasting time on who is better at what and get on with the business of life. And a side note: My first thought of the fainting at Obama rallies was exhaustion. As a young adult that spent plenty of my own time on concert floors and a mom that has taken 2 teenage sons to many more, I'm guessing it has more to do with the oppressing crowd factor rather than some supposed weak female trait.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:20 PM on 03/04/2008

If women vote for Hillary simply because she is a woman

Then this article WILL be proven right (At least about most women, not all obviously)

So let's all hope that doesn't happen.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:45 PM on 03/04/2008

I think Sklars article supports the dimness mentioned in Allen's article to the extremes... along with the "grrl power" responses and sarcasm. Seems like every woman here is falling into the trap by being "catty" over the whole thing.

The whole point I got out of the original and found lacking in this tirade is the maxim "Know Thyself" Its not about being dumber or dimmer, its about differences and perceptions. Maybe the ladies should read the article before commenting on it...

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:31 PM on 03/04/2008

I would have loved to read Charlotte Allen's article, but I was having trouble figuring out how I Tivo-ed Desperate Housewives. I'm not sure I even have Tivo, but I know something is buried under my Sex and the City DVDs and Cosmo magazines! Silly me!

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:02 PM on 03/04/2008

Wow. That OpEd was not "tongue-in-cheek" at all. Nor was it funny. Maybe I missed all that cuz I'm so dim. You know, being a woman and all.

Excuse me, I need to go cry now.




favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:56 PM on 03/04/2008

If people lock their knees while standing they faint. This is well know and documented.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:41 AM on 03/04/2008

Wow. I troll WaPo regularly to get an idea of the current Establishment propaganda line, but I missed this one. It has to be satire, right? Granted, on a strictly statistical basis, "Men" and "Women" score better or worse on specific mental benchmarks ( I can't remember what we had for dinner Tuesday night; my girlfreind has a detailed memory of the floral centerpiece on our dining room table three Thanksgivings ago), but how did that empirical datum morph into Ms. Allen's article? I've played enough online multi-player combat flight sims to know there are women who can straight-up smoke your ass in the "visospatial" arena, and I've read enough history to realize that the whole "Women-as-Natural-Noncombatants" line is a load of shit ( Thatcher? Elizabeth I? Benazhir Bhutto? not to mention Sen. Clinton)
This has to be satire. Don't buy it, Ladies. I think females have alot to contribute to the political process as far as point of view, finding real-world solutions, and Leadership ( Sen. Obama, to his credit, gets this ) but as far as the whole "weaker sex" line, anyone who tries to peddle that shit to you isn't worth the effort it takes to de-bunk them.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:09 AM on 03/04/2008

Rachel -
As always - spot on. Allen was either being literal and lame, or, doing lame satire. In any case, it drops to the floor like a feather to be trampled or a shoe after a drunken night out.
My theory - she was trying to riff off of SNL's Tina Fey's faux-editorial re owning up to being a 'B' - so why not own all of the other stereotypes - for an an easy Allen write inspired by same. She heard Tina's call for 'B' solidarity - and ding, ding - her ding, ding brain latched onto the obvious. Hil should also 'own' all of other stereotypical BS - whining, crying, browbeating, shrewing, castrating etc.
Aside from the vapidity - not an original thought sniffed out - she owes Tina big- time.
Thanks again for spotlight.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:10 AM on 03/04/2008

I'm a little miffed at you, Ms. Sklar, for pointing this out to me. I was blissfully unaware of Allen's bit of "investigative journalism" on the origins of women's apparent stupidity. As I was reading your post, I was wondering what could possibly get you so riled up (or as Allen might say, get your panties in a twist), but then I followed the link and was astounded. To think just a few minutes ago I was upset at Marie Wilson's latest blog, in which she marvels at the fact that Obama will be the first woman president. (Because you know, it isn"t enough that his campaign has overshadowed and tried to trivialize the import of Clinton"s own historical run, but now that it looks like she's losing everything why not try to take that away from her, too?) But that indignation just seems trivial compared to the one I now feel towards Allen. And it doesn"t help that she"s living proof of her own point. She"s a woman and she"s an idiot. Ergo¦

Boy¦ is there a volcano nearby we can throw her into or something?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:26 AM on 03/04/2008

After reading the article I certainly agree that Ms. Allen is an unabashed imbecile (thereby proving her point, as Rachel says), however I'm wondering if the part of this that really gives you and the lovely Ms. Sklar a rash isn't her indictment of Hillary's "stupid" campaign. Personally, I found that portion of the piece to have redeeming value.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:21 AM on 03/04/2008

I will speak for only myself. While I did find her remarks on Hillary's campaign to be disagreeable, I've dealt with types like that for a while now - this is Huff Po, after all. And I don't feel the urge to throw you in a volcano, despite your last comment.

The thing is, when the scientific revolution started, rather than objectively trying to disprove common misconceptions (like was done about the stars and planets and our own world), men used it to maintain their superiority when it came to women and other races. Their former prejudice got a makeover and was now called "science." Our brains, they said, was incapable of reason and judgment. We were no more developed mentally than a child. We were mere vessels and everything needed for reproduction was already in the sperm (in fact images of sperm back then consisted of the image of a fully developed baby with a long tail). We were prone to "female hysteria" due to imbalances in our uterus. And (my favorite) the penis possessed healing properties that we needed to fix this imbalance, and if we didn't "get it" we'd go crazy.

And this Allen woman was giving credence to the hateful and misogynistic beliefs of these early "scientists." But maybe you"re right. Never mind these giant insults and major step backward for critical thinking, not to mention science. What really gets my goat is that she"s not for Hillary. That and her slight on Grey"s Anatomy. I am a woman after all, incapable of responding to anything other than personal and emotional triggers.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:09 AM on 03/04/2008

If only Lawrence Summers had had Charlotte Allen by his side, he'd still be president of Harvard.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:01 PM on 03/03/2008

well done Rachel

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:20 PM on 03/03/2008

Did Ann Coulter write that article? I'm pretty sure that only she can hate her own sex like that. Wow, it makes me ashamed that she's a woman. For all the women that have fought for equality and continue to fight to this day, this editorial piece is an embarrassment to all of that work. I'm not much of a feminist, but things like this disgust me, even if it was meant to be funny (which it wasn't).

www.serveoutloud.blogspot.com

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:21 PM on 03/03/2008

You're not coming down with the vapors, are you?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:09 PM on 03/03/2008

Somewhere, Christopher Hitchens is smiling. Drunk, but smiling.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:58 PM on 03/03/2008

BACbank--thanks for the chuckle!

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:55 AM on 03/04/2008

Didn't the ombudsman for the Washington Post wonder, in the same edition, why fewer and fewer women were reading her paper? Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
'Cause we ain't that dumb.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:07 PM on 03/03/2008
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